Lebanon's cabinet said on Saturday it would not compromise on the country's sovereignty but that it was too early to discuss a U.N. draft resolution calling for an end to fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas."Even this draft is not final ... we will not discuss the intentions of this side or that," said Information Minister Ghazi Aridi after a cabinet meeting.Responding to a question, Aridi said the government would not compromise on Lebanon's sovereignty or accept any Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory."None of us will give up anything to do with national sovereignty, rights, dignity," he said, adding the government was committed "to Lebanon's territory, Lebanon's liberation, the withdrawal of the occupation from Lebanese land".... http://today.reuters.com

Swept up by a wave of patriotism after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Chris Magaoay joined the Marine Corps in November 2004. The newly married Magaoay thought a military career would allow him to continue his college education, help his country and set his life on the right path. Less than two years later, Magaoay became one of thousands of military deserters who have chosen a lifetime of exile or possible court-martial rather than fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. “It wasn’t something I did on the spur of the moment,” said Magaoay, a native of Maui, Hawaii. “It took me a long time to realize what was going on. The war is illegal.” Magaoay said his disillusionment with the military began in boot camp in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where a superior officer joked about killing and mistreating Iraqis. When his unit was deployed to Iraq in March, Magaoay and his wife drove to Canada, joining a small group of deserters who are trying to win permission from the Canadian government to stay...http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1930387.php

At least 660 people have been reported killed in Lebanon and Israel since fighting broke out July 12 between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas. IN LEBANON: 575 At least 575 have been killed including 497 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 28 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. The Lebanese government's Higher Relief Council said 933 Lebanese had been killed in the conflict. Added to the total deaths were five Syrian farm workers killed in an Israel airstrike just inside the Lebanese border, whose deaths were not counted when the attack occurred Friday. Among the latest deaths: ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2278737

British troops fighting Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan are on the "brink of exhaustion", The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. Commanders fear that the number of "high tempo" operations being launched against the Taliban is "unsustainable" unless the 3,600-strong task force is reinforced with an extra 1,000-strong infantry battle group.Since May, British troops in Helmand province have fought 25 major battles in which they killed an estimated 700 Taliban.Commanders say the mission has so far been "fantastically successful", but they believe that the relentless number of back-to-back operations being fought in harsh terrain in temperatures of up to 50C is beginning to take its toll....http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=W4TGMHATDPM0TQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2006/08/06/nafg06.xml

Israeli security forces detained Palestinian parliamentary speaker Aziz Dweik, a leader of the governing Hamas movement, in a raid on his West Bank home on Sunday. “We were sitting home peacefully, normally. Then we heard knocking on the door, which surprised and shocked us because the knocking was so loud,” his wife told Reuters in the West Bank city of Ramallah after the night-time arrest. “He went down because the army was there. He opened the door. They saw him in his pajamas and asked him to go with them. He asked for his clothes, and I brought them.” An Israeli army spokesman confirmed Dweik was taken into custody. “He is the head of Hamas’s legislature and since Hamas is a terrorist organization, he is a target for arrest,” he said. Israeli forces detained eight members of the Palestinian cabinet and 23 legislators in June after gunmen from Hamas and two other militant groups infiltrated into Israel from Gaza and kidnapped an Israeli soldier, who is still being held...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14204638/

Former Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith is claiming President George W. Bush was unaware that there were two major sects of Islam just two months before the President ordered troops to invade Iraq, RAW STORY has learned. In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End, Galbraith, the son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, claims that American leadership knew very little about the nature of Iraqi society and the problems it would face after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites. ...http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Ambassador_claims_shortly_before_invasion_Bush_0804.html